The Strategic Pursuit Lead is a pivotal role responsible for orchestrating and leading the end-to-end sales cycle for the organization's most significant and complex strategic opportunities. This role focuses on driving revenue growth by developing compelling win strategies, managing large-scale bids, and fostering strong client relationships. They will act as a central figure, collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment and successful closure of high-value deals.

Along with Strategic Pursuit Lead role for key opportunities, this role will also focus on running the Strategic Pursuit Program for Japan.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Pursuit Program:

• Develop Japan blue print for Strategic Pursuit Program and work with Theatre leaders to build a Strategic engagement team with in Theatres
• Develop APJC community of Key roles in Strategic Pursuit Program and focus on learning and replicating winning deal strategies in Japan
• Work with cross functional stakeholders to build a Management System of Strategic Deals with the focus on building Rolling Six Quarter pipeline of large complex deals in Japan

Strategic Pursuit Lead:

• Lead and manage the full sales pursuit lifecycle for strategic, complex, and high-value opportunities, from origination and qualification through to closing and contracting.
• Develop and execute comprehensive win strategies that address client business goals, technology needs, and competitive landscapes.
• Engage early with C-level clients and key decision-makers to build and maintain strong relationships, understand their needs, and effectively position solutions.
• Orchestrate and lead cross-functional pursuit teams, including sales, pre-sales, solution architects, customer experience, legal, and delivery, ensuring seamless collaboration and alignment.
• Drive the development of compelling proposals, presentations, and other client-facing materials, ensuring clarity, persuasiveness, and adherence to strategic messaging.
• Manage and monitor the sales pipeline for strategic pursuits, ensuring robust qualification and progression of opportunities.
• Conduct thorough competitive analysis and market trend assessment to inform pursuit strategies and differentiate offerings.
• Ensure all strategic pursuits are robustly qualified, focusing efforts on prospects with the highest potential for conversion.
• Negotiate and mediate conflicts to reach agreements and compromises during complex deal cycles.
• Coach and mentor sales and pursuit team members on best practices in sales, bid management, and client engagement.
• Contribute to building internal sales and pursuit capabilities by proactively sharing knowledge and facilitating training sessions.

Who You Are:

You are a driven and commercially savvy sales professional who thrives in a dynamic, fast-paced environment. You understand the nuances of working with Japan HQ customers in the mid-to-select market segment and can effectively engage with both customers and partners to drive adoption of Cisco’s Enterprise Agreement and strategic buying programs.

• Strong consultative sales approach
• Proven ability to influence stakeholders, manage complex sales cycles, and negotiate with senior leaders in finance, procurement, and legal.
• Cross-functional collaboration skills
• Excels at working across multiple teams, including account teams, renewal managers, partner organizations, and regional leadership, to drive alignment and execution.
• Partner enablement attitude
• Understands the importance of partner alignment in shifting from transactional to strategic software selling motions.
• Process-driven and results-oriented
• Highly structured in managing opportunities and ensuring qualification criteria are met before progressing deals.
• Language proficiency
• Fluent in Japanese and business-level English (reading/writing) to effectively support Japanese teams, customers, and partners while collaborating with global teams.

Why Cisco?

At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.